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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Nic Jönsson, Shanghai WEC
It’s not a bad result to be on the podium in a World Championship race, but at the same time it’s frustrating to not stand on the top spot of that podium...
Michele Rugolo, Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson celebrated a podium finish in Sunday's Six Hours of Shanghai. (Photo: David Lord/Krohn Racing)
I’m on a plane back home from China and Shanghai after the last race of the year in the WEC Championship with Krohn Racing. As always it’s an experience to travel to all these different countries that we do. It makes you appreciate what we have back in the States and in Sweden, where I stem from.
Let’s talk racing first before I get in to the different experiences I’ve had this year. This was one of the few tracks we raced on this year that I’ve never been to before. I’ve seen it on TV so I know the configuration and had somewhat of an idea about the characteristics of the corners, etc. But after walking the track with our engineer and co-drivers on Thursday afternoon, I realized the track was much narrower, especially in the exit of the short corners, and had more banking and elevation changes than you can see on TV.
We also figured the grip level was going to be pretty low after having seen the type of asphalt of the track surface. So we decided to make a few changes to the car even before we started to run. This was a good call since we had a pretty good balance right away and I ended up being the fastest in the first session. We kept tweaking the car with some minor adjustments in the next few sessions and had a pretty good car going into the race.
We had decided to try to do a four-stop strategy to try to get an advantage over our competition who we were sure were going to do a five-stop race. To be able to do four stops we had to run the engine very lean and save a lot of fuel, but at the same time run somewhat good lap times to not loose too much time. We were looking very good and thought we were going to make it when the fuel light all a sudden came on.
This was a big surprise to us since the fuel number still told us that we should be able to make it. The engineers started doing their calculations when they realized that we had not gotten all of the fuel in the car on the last stop. This made us have to change strategy to five-stops like every one else, but since we had been saving fuel for pretty much a full stint we had lost some time to our competitors, We had to settle for another podium finish, our third in a row and five out of eight race.
It’s not a bad result to be on the podium in a World Championship race, but at the same time it’s frustrating to not stand on the top spot of that podium when you know you have the speed to do it if everything fell in place.
This year has been one of those years where we have had a good, solid year but not with that little extra that it takes to win races and championships. So it’s going to be a long winter with a lot of hard work both in the gym and also to try to improve both the car and our pit stops to be prepared and ready to take up the battle for the 2013 season.
I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a professional and good organization as Krohn Racing. Our team has a group of very hard working crew guys that I have 100% confidence in every time I get in that car to do my job. I want to thank all the Krohn crew guys, along with our engineer and management for their very hard and dedicated work to make this one of the absolutely best and dedicated teams.
I also want to say thank you to my team owner, co-driver and good friend, Tracy Krohn, for putting together such a great group and team and make me a part of Krohn Racing.
It’s amazing how fast time pass by when you have fun. The 2013 season will mark the tenth year that Tracy and I will race together as teammates. There’s a lot to be said for consistency and continuity when it comes to teamwork and be able to make improvements.
Over the last nine years Tracy and I have stood on the podium at Le Mans three times, won several races in Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes, won Sebring and Petit Le Mans in GT2, along with other successes together, and I won in the Continental Tires Series GS Class.
This makes it very satisfying to me in several different ways. Of course, as a race car driver, it’s always satisfying to win and have success, but to do it with a friend and someone that runs a publicly traded company during the week really impresses and drives me to keep improving so we can win races together. The fact that he finds the time to go testing and work together with me as driver coach to improve on his passion to become a world class race car driver, and do it with such dedication and commitment, is really something.
When it comes to our travel experiences and what we get to see, this is something that’s very hard to explain unless you get to experience it with your own eyes. But I will try to give you little taste of it.
When you travel in Europe you are able to find nearly everything that you can find in the States when it comes to food, clothes, quality of hotels, restaurants, etc. One thing you find in Europe is how much better roads and commercial transportation they have there than we are used to in the States. You can also see a big difference in the driving and safety on the roads.
You can also tell that the Europeans are more conscious of what they eat and how much further ahead they are with environmental programs to make sure we keep our environment clean and a better place to have our kids grow up in.
If you look at the Asian countries you have a big difference between Japan and China, for example. Japan is much more like Europe and somewhat like the States versus China, that’s very dirty with a lot of poverty. We all know that there is poverty everywhere in the world, but it’s much more obvious in China.
You see young children, five to six years old, standing at intersections selling things to be able to eat for the day. This makes you appreciate and understand how fortunate we are what get to travel, have food on the table, be able to dress and buy proper clothes, etc.
I’m not going to bore you with any more of my international experiences and concerns I have when I’m out traveling. But I want to finish this blog to say a big thank you to all you people and fans that have followed my racing this year and hope that I get to write this blog again next year and to see some of you guys at the races next season.
Until then, have a wonderful off-season with a great holiday season with your friends and loved ones. Be careful and take care of each other.
Nic
A former Swedish F3 and Group N Touring Car champion before moving to the U.S. in the late 1990s, Nic Jönsson has also competed in Indy Lights and NASCAR. He has most notably been a sports car racer with victories in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, the American Le Mans Series and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, where he was crowned the ST class champion last season.
Jönsson stood on the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice with his friend and team owner Tracy Krohn. He is competing in the FIA WEC for the full 2012 season for Krohn Racing in a Ferrari F458, as well at the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Series with a factory Kia Forte Koup.
For more information, visit: http://www.krohnracing.net.
Let’s talk racing first before I get in to the different experiences I’ve had this year. This was one of the few tracks we raced on this year that I’ve never been to before. I’ve seen it on TV so I know the configuration and had somewhat of an idea about the characteristics of the corners, etc. But after walking the track with our engineer and co-drivers on Thursday afternoon, I realized the track was much narrower, especially in the exit of the short corners, and had more banking and elevation changes than you can see on TV.
We also figured the grip level was going to be pretty low after having seen the type of asphalt of the track surface. So we decided to make a few changes to the car even before we started to run. This was a good call since we had a pretty good balance right away and I ended up being the fastest in the first session. We kept tweaking the car with some minor adjustments in the next few sessions and had a pretty good car going into the race.
We had decided to try to do a four-stop strategy to try to get an advantage over our competition who we were sure were going to do a five-stop race. To be able to do four stops we had to run the engine very lean and save a lot of fuel, but at the same time run somewhat good lap times to not loose too much time. We were looking very good and thought we were going to make it when the fuel light all a sudden came on.
This was a big surprise to us since the fuel number still told us that we should be able to make it. The engineers started doing their calculations when they realized that we had not gotten all of the fuel in the car on the last stop. This made us have to change strategy to five-stops like every one else, but since we had been saving fuel for pretty much a full stint we had lost some time to our competitors, We had to settle for another podium finish, our third in a row and five out of eight race.
It’s not a bad result to be on the podium in a World Championship race, but at the same time it’s frustrating to not stand on the top spot of that podium when you know you have the speed to do it if everything fell in place.
This year has been one of those years where we have had a good, solid year but not with that little extra that it takes to win races and championships. So it’s going to be a long winter with a lot of hard work both in the gym and also to try to improve both the car and our pit stops to be prepared and ready to take up the battle for the 2013 season.
I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a professional and good organization as Krohn Racing. Our team has a group of very hard working crew guys that I have 100% confidence in every time I get in that car to do my job. I want to thank all the Krohn crew guys, along with our engineer and management for their very hard and dedicated work to make this one of the absolutely best and dedicated teams.
I also want to say thank you to my team owner, co-driver and good friend, Tracy Krohn, for putting together such a great group and team and make me a part of Krohn Racing.
It’s amazing how fast time pass by when you have fun. The 2013 season will mark the tenth year that Tracy and I will race together as teammates. There’s a lot to be said for consistency and continuity when it comes to teamwork and be able to make improvements.
Over the last nine years Tracy and I have stood on the podium at Le Mans three times, won several races in Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes, won Sebring and Petit Le Mans in GT2, along with other successes together, and I won in the Continental Tires Series GS Class.
This makes it very satisfying to me in several different ways. Of course, as a race car driver, it’s always satisfying to win and have success, but to do it with a friend and someone that runs a publicly traded company during the week really impresses and drives me to keep improving so we can win races together. The fact that he finds the time to go testing and work together with me as driver coach to improve on his passion to become a world class race car driver, and do it with such dedication and commitment, is really something.
When it comes to our travel experiences and what we get to see, this is something that’s very hard to explain unless you get to experience it with your own eyes. But I will try to give you little taste of it.
When you travel in Europe you are able to find nearly everything that you can find in the States when it comes to food, clothes, quality of hotels, restaurants, etc. One thing you find in Europe is how much better roads and commercial transportation they have there than we are used to in the States. You can also see a big difference in the driving and safety on the roads.
You can also tell that the Europeans are more conscious of what they eat and how much further ahead they are with environmental programs to make sure we keep our environment clean and a better place to have our kids grow up in.
If you look at the Asian countries you have a big difference between Japan and China, for example. Japan is much more like Europe and somewhat like the States versus China, that’s very dirty with a lot of poverty. We all know that there is poverty everywhere in the world, but it’s much more obvious in China.
You see young children, five to six years old, standing at intersections selling things to be able to eat for the day. This makes you appreciate and understand how fortunate we are what get to travel, have food on the table, be able to dress and buy proper clothes, etc.
I’m not going to bore you with any more of my international experiences and concerns I have when I’m out traveling. But I want to finish this blog to say a big thank you to all you people and fans that have followed my racing this year and hope that I get to write this blog again next year and to see some of you guys at the races next season.
Until then, have a wonderful off-season with a great holiday season with your friends and loved ones. Be careful and take care of each other.
Nic
A former Swedish F3 and Group N Touring Car champion before moving to the U.S. in the late 1990s, Nic Jönsson has also competed in Indy Lights and NASCAR. He has most notably been a sports car racer with victories in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, the American Le Mans Series and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, where he was crowned the ST class champion last season.
Jönsson stood on the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice with his friend and team owner Tracy Krohn. He is competing in the FIA WEC for the full 2012 season for Krohn Racing in a Ferrari F458, as well at the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Series with a factory Kia Forte Koup.
For more information, visit: http://www.krohnracing.net.
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